Season-ing

The weather in the mornings has been lovely. It isn’t stifling or too humid. There is a breeze with a nip in the air. It is the beginning teases of Fall. I welcome it with open arms.

It is a mystery why each Fall I reflect on the seasons of life unlike any other.

Perhaps it is because Fall is so obvious in it’s arrival; a welcomed relief from the heat and oppression of Summer. It comes in like a lady: glorious in her dress, gentle, gracious, and making everyone smile with her presence.

Spring makes her entrance as well, but she is more like the popular girl in school: beautiful in her blossoms but demanding, impatient, and entitled to have her way over Winter.

It is a slow fade into the other seasons with no clear sign of their entrance.

Winter – on the wings of Fall – slides into place like an old man slides into his recliner.

Summer eases into place as a toddler slowly evolves into a child ready for happy adventures.

So it is with the seasons of our lives.

Some come in markedly putting up a fight to have their way over us and our routines. Others drift in more gently – steady and silent -until one day we wake up and realize our scene has changed.

Like the seasons – the phases of our lives are temporary (Glory to God!).

Some are happy.
Some are celebratory.
Some painful and oppressive.
Some are grief stricken.
Some are forged in the heat of refinement.

But they all end eventually morphing into the next season to come.

Each one is necessary for growth, and it reminds me of one of my favorite verses: Isaiah 55:10-11

As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty;
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.